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NEW CALEDONIA, 



BY 



Capt, Auguste E. Bruno, 



Of the 'Royal Hussars, Honorary Equerry to His Majesty 
the King^ of Italy. 



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SAN FRANCISCO; 
Printing Office of Geo. Spaulding & Co., 414 Clay Street, 

18 8 2. 



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NEW CALEDONIA, 



BY 



Capt. Auguste E. Bruno, 

Of the (Royal Hussars, Honorary Equerry to His Majesty 
the King of Italy. 



SAN FKANCISCO; 
Printing Office of Geo. Spaulding & Co., 414 Clay Street, 

18 82. 



* 



~X\ 



NEW CALEDONIA. 



BY CAPT. AUGUSTE E. BBUNO. 



The distance from Sydney to New Caledonia is about 360 
leagues. The voyage for sailing vessels occupies from ten to 
twenty days, and is fraught with as much interest as elsewhere, 
on the mighty deep. Schools of small whales are occasionally to 
be seen capering, spouting and leaping out of the water, the sun- 
light reflecting from their yellow bellies; bands of flying fish, 
skimming over the surface of the sea, at a height of a dozen feet, 
and making a thousand feet a minute, before dipping, in their 
efforts to escape from the Albacore (a large species of the mack- 
erel family), or from some other of its innumerable briny perse- 
cutors. 

The pursuit by the Albacore becomes exceedingly interesting — 
being a swift and powerful swimmer, it keeps, with wonderful 
precision, directly beneath its volatile prey, until the aerial leap 
ends in submersion, when its open jaws receive the little victims. 

The Albacore attains to nearly the length of a man, and is not 
rivaled in elegance and beauty by any of the finny family. Its 
color along the back is gold, tinted blue, and the sides and 
belly of a silvery saffron hue. It has been observed, after cap- 
ture, and just before dying, to change constantly and rapidly its 
color, and to reflect, like the pearl shell, the varied tints of the 
rainbow. 

The Sword-fish, also encountered on the voyage, in turn makes 
prey of the Albacore, and the presumption is that when the latter 
congregate in large numbers about a ship, their finny foe is hard 
by; the theory being that the vicinity of so large a body as a ves- 
sel is sufficient to deter the sword-fish from making his impetuous 



thrusts amongst the shoal, lest his bony weapon, impelled into 
the solid timbers by the violence of the assault, could not be 
withdrawn. 

An occasional shark shows his fin. This sluggish, stupid 
monster, the legendary of the mariner, will follow the ship for 
days, and the idea prevalent among sailors is, that when seen in 
mid ocean, the shark is lost and famished. Corroboration of 
this idea is found in the fact that when captured — save the refuse 
of the ship — no food is found in its stomach. Sharks abound 
near the island coasts, and subsist upon the floating debris, 
gelatinous sea nettles and mollusks, with which inter-tropical 
seas abound. When lured away in the wake of a field of medusae, 
they never return, but become hungry wanderers in the expanse 
of the ocean. 

Endless varieties of squid and cuttle-fish are seen, many of 
which make long leaps out of the water. 

Among other compagnons de voyage were the scarlet-tailed 
Tropic bird (Phaeton), called by sailors the Boatswain, from its 
shrill note, the Albatross of enduring flight, that dexterous 
fisher, the proverbial Booby, and the circling Sea Gull. 

On the 9th of April, the jagged peaks of New Caledonia's 
mountains came in sight, and grew upon the horizon in the 
shortening distance. The white coral belt, which encircles the 
shore in parallel continuity beyond the reach of vision, next 
riveted the attention. 

This limestone barrier of fossil coral, were it not for occasional 
passes through it, would interpose an insurmountable obstacle 
from the outer sea to the mainland, and the interjacent lagoon 
formed by it. Such breaks in its continuity, opening a way 
for the "White-Winged" messengers of commerce, are made by 
the currents of rivers, whose fresh waters are fatal to the life and 
labors of these marvellous myriads of zoophytes, which, through 
countless centuries, have been raising and extending their ram- 
parts against the ocean monarch in his very domains. 

These opening, or breaks, in the coral belt are discernable at 
a distance at sea, both from a diminution in the tremendous 
surf, and a little islet on each side of the entrance, formed by 



the sediment deposited by the current on their coral margins, 
and are tufted with vegetation and clumps of cocoa trees. 

The current from the lagoon to the outer sea, through the 
opening, is constant, and less rapid in the middle, where greater 
resistance is encountered from the opposing ocean waves, and is 
increased by the surf overleaping the coralline barrier and fall- 
ing into the lagoon. 

On my first voyage I passed through what is known as the 
Dumbea passage, which is three-quarters of a mile wide, and lies 
abreast of the port of Noumea. Soundings at the seaward 
entrance indicate a depth of fifty fathoms, shallowing to fourteen 
at the inner outlet. A westerly current runs through it, at the 
rate of nearly one mile per hour, and no great hazard attends 
its navigation; yet a strong southerly breeze increasing the mo- 
mentum of the current, with no anchorage, would make disas- 
trous wrecks on the northwest shore of the pass inevitable, or, if 
overtaken by a calm in mid passage, a vessel would surely drift 
upon the lateral reefs. 

Navigators speak occasionally of encountering a singularly 
turbulent sea at the entrance, rolling over and breaking with suf- 
ficient violence to swamp a ship. 

On this voyage the "Sadie T. Caller " entered the bay through 
one of the Bulari passes, of which there are several, separated 
by coral patches. The one through which we entered was rec- 
ognizable by small islets, as above mentioned, one on the outer, 
and the other (Amadee isle) within the reef. 

Upon Amadee islet has been reared one of the most magnificent 
light-houses in the world; a spherical iron tower, painted in red 
and white bands, with a revolving light, 175 feet in elevation 
from the base to the lightning rod. 

On one of the wooded islets at the entrance of Dumbea pass- 
age, there is likewise a fine beacon. 

Between the Dumbea and Bulari passes, a distance of thirteen 
miles, the madreporic reef is straight and unbroken. The trend 
in the reef here changes from W.N.W. to N.N.W. 

After gliding among the labyrinth of islands, the "Sadie T. 
Caller" passed through the inlet to the east of Isle Nu, and cast 
anchor in the roadstead in front of Noumea. 



6 



Noumea is the chief French port of New Caledonia, founded 
as late as 1853, by Montravel, and at that time fortified against 
interior attack by the small military colony then planted there. 

The harbor of Noumea is one of the finest known to naviga- 
tors, regarded from any point of view; the first great drawback, 
want of fresh water, having been removed by a splendid aque- 
duct, built by convict labor. It may be said, however, that dur- 
ing the months of January and February, the cyclonic period, 
there are occasions when anchors will not hold a ship; men-of- 
war are obliged to keep up steam, and sailing vessels to take 
refuge in sheltered coves. So terrific is the wind, that houses 
are unroofed, sometimes blown over, and many disasters result. 

Perhaps the most serious scourge of New Caledonia is the 
cyclone, which, with more or less intensity, visits the Island and 
adjacent seas annually. 

The initial point of this formidable whirlwind, in the Southern 
Hemisphere, is near the Equatorial line. Sweeping around upon 
a progressive axis, its centrifugal flight never ceases, until a 
circle is described, which marks a diameter of nearly 1,000 miles, 
moving ever in a direction like that of the hands of a clock. 

The movement of translation of the axis of the cyclone is in- 
variably westerly, with a steady southerly inflection, describing 
a parabola, and continuing to a distance of two and a half 
leagues. 

By reference to the map, it will be seen that the cyclone 
passes between Australia and New Caledonia, then diverging to 
the southeast, it doubles the northern promontory of New Zea- 
land, from whence this devastative phenomenon, in its headlong 
flight, becomes lost, and its warm breath congealed over the icy 
wastes of the South Pacific. 

In its track, every unsheltered object upon the Island is pros- 
trated. The rain, meanwhile, falls in torrents, and the rill 
speedily becomes a river; but in the deep valleys vegetation 
escapes its pernicious breath. 

The advent of these formidable tempests is heralded by un- 
mistakable signs. For days previously the heat becomes op- 
pressive, copper-hued clouds float in mid-air, rain, in huge 
drops, descends, and finally, when too late for precautions, the 



sudden fall of the mercury in the barometer announces that the 
unwelcome visitor has reached the shore. 

At the acme of the tempest, the wind rushes from every point 
of the compass. Should it happen, as once it did in Noumea, 
in 1865, that one finds himself in the magic centre of this mad 
whirl, he beholds the sky serenely bright, the sun undimmed, 
the atmosphere pure and undisturbed, a gentle breeze sighs 
through the rustling foliage, and the soul of man and of nature 
seems to blend in harmonious lethargy, when, like a thunder- 
bolt, the howling tempest bursts upon this fictitious calm, and 
terror and dismay overwhelm the earth. 

The track of the hurricane is marked by general desolation. 
The perennial verdure of this tropic land, its paradisical fields 
and forests, then look as though they had been scathed by the 
firey fiend. The mighty wings of the tornado, drenched with the 
ocean's spray, shower their briny burden upon the teeming 
earth, the bruised vegetation yields its life-sap to the desiccating 
sun, and the eternal evergreen fades into a sickly yellow. 

New Caledonia, discovered by Captain Cook over one hundred 
years ago, is, next to New Zealand, the largest island in the 
great South Sea, being upwards of 220 miles in length and 40 
in width. Its valleys and transverse plateaux contain large areas 
of transcendent fertility, teeming with spontaneous vegetation; 
yet, no product of this prolific island figures in the world's com- 
merce, except its sandal wood, gold, copper and niokel ore — the 
latter presenting itself in the form of a magnesium hydro- silicate, 
which has received the name of Grarnierite. 

Situated as far south as the Hawaiian Islands are north of the 
equatorial line, the climate, while similar, is superior thereto. 
From April to December, a glorious succession of resplendent 
days and starlit nights, of equal length, marks the longer of the 
two seasons in this latitude — the wind prevailing from the E.S.E. 
point of the compass, with occasional variations to the W.S. W. in 
July, August and September, bringing rain. The west coast, to 
a degree, seems to come within the Australian monsoons. The 
shorter season is dreaded by navigators on the north coast, as a 
ship in the toils of the cyclone, which then prevails, rarely ever 



8 



escapes wreck upon the coralline reefs, which form the most 
striking characteristic of the South Sea Archipelago. 

The entire west coast of New Caledonia is an interminable 
labyrinth, or network of promontories, peninsulas, bays and 
islets, with circumjacent reefs of coral, while its eastern shore 
line is, figuratively speaking, edged with a submarine fringe of 
coral rocks, extending for many leagues ocean ward, with sand 
islets at intervals. 

Notwithstanding tbe broken character of the coast, there are 
numerous ports or havens which afford shelter. 

Two longitudinal Cordilleras, running in nearly parallel lines, 
diversify the surface of the Island, the craggy peaks of which, 
being visible at sea for many leagues, are Nature's beacons to the 
wary mariner amid these treacherous seas. 

New Caledonia, like the sister groups, affords to the geologist 
unmistakable proofs of mighty "volcanic upheavals in long past 
ages — in fact, at this time valcanoes exist in the interior. 

The mangrove in many places lines the shores in dense 
groves to the water's edge, while the cocoa and betelnut trees, 
both varieties of the palm, luxuriantly abound. It is the nut of 
the latter, with the leaves of a species of pepper tree, and coral 
lime, that is chewed so universally by the East Indians. 

The pine, in clumps, grows to a great height, especially near 
the sea and on the smaller out-lying islands. Many fine tropic 
timber trees are found, the most important being the sandal and 
rosewood. The sandal-wood of commerce is the heart of the 
larger trunks, and is of a very deep saffron hue and most grate- 
ful perfume. 

The coffee and tobacco plants flourish to a greater degree in 
New Caledonia than in countries where they are indigenous, the 
former producing a berry of unrivalled flavor in about fourteen 
months after planting, whilst in other countries, famed for 
their coffee product, double that time is necessary. 

These crops are, unfortunately, subject to periodical destruc- 
tion by invasions of grasshoppers, which grow to an enormous 
size, and have become so grave an infliction upon the country 
as to have induced the Colonial Government to offer great prizes 
for contrivances to exterminate them. 







The cotton plant finds, likewise, a genial soil in New Cale- 
donia, but the rainy season is inimical, as the crop is liable to 
damage from excess of moisture, a peculiarity of the Torrid 
Zone. 

Many oil-yielding plants, of great variety, figure in the botany 
of this island, while the sugar-cane grows luxuriantly. 

The mulberry tree (Morus Mucculis) and silkworm are attract- 
ing great attention. 

Cattle raising is becoming an almost universal business, and 
with immense success. 

The native population has, as yet, not been ascertained, and is 
estimated at upwards of 35,000. The European or foreign popu- 
lation does not exceed half that number. 

The murderous proclivities of the aborigines of New Caledonia, 
and many of the South Sea Islands, have been corrected by the 
French Catholic missionaries, and those of the Church of Eng- 
land, and the colonists, a great number of whom, in the past, in 
their humanitarianian efforts, have laid down their lives and 
sunk to their eternal rest, "unwept, unhonored and unsung." 

On the Island of New Caledonia, " Commerce, the great 
civilizer," and French penal colonization, at first supplemented 
the work of the mi'ssionaries, but now have superseded it. 

The French occupation of New Caledonia must result in the 
eventual extermination of the native islanders, such is the natural 
and implacable antipathy felt by the latter against the former, 
an almost incessant struggle of progressive intensity is made by 
them. In the French newspaper, published at Noumea, it is 
usual to read of " Soulevement Canaque," " Nouvelle revolte 
des Canaques," " Cannibalisme Canaque," ad infinitum. 

Under the title, " Un peu d' Histoire — Coup d'ceil retro- 
spectif," a Noumean publication, furnishes a long and frightful 
list of the atrocities of the islanders upon Europeans, mostly the 
French, since M. Tardy de Montravel, on September 24th, 1853, 
debarked ' ' au Havre de Salade " and solemnly took possession 
of New Caledonia, " au nom de la France." The victims com- 
prised in this fearful list of killed and eaten, are soldiers, colo- 
nists, their wives and children, missionaries, crews of vessels, 



10 



shipwrecked passengers, fugitive transports and Polynesian 
laborers. 

Convict labor has been utilized by the French Governmental 
authorities in New Caledonia, in a manner and to a degree that 
excites the admiration of all. 

Under the guidance of their engineers and superintendents, 
this labor has been so directed that immense excavations have 
been made,, and hills leveled, and the sea filled in over a great 
space, upon which the Port de France (Noumea) has been built. 
Commodious Government warehouses, dry-docks, arsenals, 
military barracks, Government Palace, Hall of Justice, hospital, 
telegraphs, aqueducts, quays, roads and military highways, 
public squares, baths, and other great works, have been com- 
menced and completed with convict labor Extensive tracks in 
the interior of the Island are being opened, made accessible and 
cultivated by this labor. 

The Isle Nu (Dubouzet Island) lies opposite the Port Noumea, 
which latter place is located on the north side of a small bay, on 
the west shore of Ducas Peninsula. Isle Nu is quite three miles 
long, and runs parallel with the Noumean shore, from which 
hys separated by a channel of the same length, a mile or more 
in mean breadth. 

This channel affords an anchorage protected from the winds 
at all times, with deep water and bold shores. In this roadstead 
are moored the men-of-war and gunboats, that inspire with 
wholesome dread from five to eight thousand wretched criminals, 
and crush in their hearts the forlorn hope of ever again seeing 
their beloved patrie. 

The surface of the Isle Nu is diversified by a series of small 
hills and plateaux, rising one above another, receding from the 
shore. To the east and west there is an outlet to the sea. Upon 
the summit of the central ridge a military observatory has been 
erected, dominating the island and its surroundings. 

On the first plateau, and diagonally opposite Noumea, is a 
long line of low, one-story, sharp-roofed stone prisons, com- 
pactly built, each containing eighty bunks, forty on a side, 
strongly constructed, and provided with iron rings, to which the 
fettered prisoner is fastened at night. In this initial row the 



11 



least criminal of the convicts are lodged at night. On the ter- 
race, or plateau, partly artificial, next above and behind, is a 
similar row of prisons, for an inferior grade of transports; and 
in this wise four plateaux have been used as prison sites, the last 
and highest row of prisons being reserved for the most infamous. 
A species of boulevard, shadowed by evergreens, occupies the 
space in front of the prisons, and here " the sentry walks his 
midnight round." 

That speedy justice may be meted out to these outcasts, when 
a fit occasion presents itself, that useful, expeditious and humane 
invention of a great philanthropist, so suggestive of dissevered 
heads and bodies, the guillotine, has been imported from the 
mother country and installed upon the island, where it grimly 
invites the attention, and provokes retrospective reflection upon 
the gigantic crimes of the Reign of Terror — crimes committed in 
the sacred name of Liberty, when there turned upon man a 
fiercer demon-man ! 

The thumb-screw, rack and other ingenious devices of the 
Holy Inquisition, are at times resorted to, when the wretch is 
put to the " Question." 

A finger, or other mutilated member, in this sultry climate, 
not infrequently mortifies, rendering amputation necessary. 

The martial discipline of a French camp prevails, and as has 
been suggested by an observant English officer, it is this military 
system, that pervades everything they do, that makes the French 
such bad colonists and so hated by the natives. 

Among the depraved of these unfortunates, serving out their 
penal terms on the Isle Nu, and for whom no ray of hope glim- 
mers on the darkening vista of life, there exists, despite the 
espionage of their military guards and keepers, a singular free- 
masonry of language and action. Their oral communications 
with each other are in a convict dialect, known alone to them- 
selves; and what is surprising, money, which they are interdicted 
from having in their possession, nevertheless circulates surrep- 
titiously among them, betrayal, or any attempt of the kind made 
by any of their number, portends the death of the false one 
sooner or later. 

Money is furtively obtained by them in many ingenious ways, 



12 



and as ingeniously circulated. One illustration, of many that 
might be given, will suffice. Out of beef bones are deftly 
wrought chef d'oeuvres of art, in the form of shirt studs, snuff- 
boxes, match-cases, and many curious little articles. In the 
manufacture of these, tools of some sort must be used. As pos- 
session by them even of a penknife is prohibited, these must be 
obtained, as well as the time for their use, by the connivance of 
the surveillants, who have charge of them in squads, and are 
held responsible for any breach of prison discipline. While en- 
gaged on the public works, and strangers, captains of vessels, 
visitors, and others, come about them, an opportunity is watched 
for by them, and the little artistic fabric, revealed in the half- 
opened hand, is offered for sale, soto voce, and invariably finds 
a purchaser in various persons from various motives, whether as 
a souvenir, a curiosity, or a tribute of pity for the wretched 
vendor. 

The guillotinier, or headsman, who is a convict, and lives 
apart from them, borrows, frequently, money from his brother 
convicts, at usurious rates, and pledges, as security, his fee of 
twenty-five francs, to become due from the Government for the 
next human head that is severed from its body. 

The worst type of criminals is to be found here — creatures 
originally without a single instinct of nobility to distinguish 
them from the brute creation. Crime and disease are far from 
being exceptional among them, while insanity and consump- 
tion — resulting from self-abuse — despair, and suicide, decimate 
them. 

In front of the prisons, along the shore, are commodious 
slips and wharves. Boats in use for officers and prisoners are 
always secured by chains and bolts to the landings, and vigilant 
sentries ever on duty. 

Obliquely to the right of the prisons are the offices and resi- 
dence of the Commandant, surrounded by gardens of perennial 
verdure and rare beauty. On the left the telegraph station is 
located. 

There are many other prominent buildings on this side of the 
Isle Nu, among which may be mentioned a spacious structure 
dedicated to the use of the surveillants and their families, a 



13 

church (services in which prisoners are made to attend), a grand 
boulangerie and an extensive saw-mill. A depot or warehouse, 
of large proportion, and a splendid building, used by the Com- 
missioners, doctors and schoolmasters, attract the attention; also 
the Academy, the barracks and officers' mess-rooms. 

A fine road leads from the embarcadero over the hills to the 
southeast slope of the Isle Nu, confronting the ocean. There 
is to be found the Hospital, an elaborate and most charming 
structure, in the construction of which French skill and taste, 
always so superior, have been well displayed. Some distance 
away is to be seen, embowered amid the foliage, the convent of 
LesSoeurs de Charite. Encompassing these for a long distance 
is what is termed the Jardin Anglais, the most enchanting spot 
to be met with anywhere. What rapture fills the breast of the 
stranger invited to visit this Elysian field while wander- 
ing through bowers of floral beauty, over green and russet 
walks, reposing for a moment in the welcome shade of the bend- 
ing banyan, glancing at the feathery plumes of the graceful 
palm, rustled in mid air by soft wooings of the south wind, 
amorous vines and mosses clinging to their forest trees, love- 
birds of dazzling plumage flitting through the foliage, insects with 
diamond-lustred coats wantoning in the sunlight, and the air 
languid with its burden of a thousand perfumes. And when the 
music of the Island band, with its voluptuous swell, comes 
gently stealing upon the ear, every sense seems ravished. 



ImSSSlEF OF CONGRESS 



028 165 024 5 




